Table of Contents

This study is maintained and distributed by the National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA), the aging program within ICPSR. NACDA
is sponsored by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) at the National Institutes of Heath (NIH).

Principal Investigator(s):
Fogel, Robert W., et al., University of Chicago. Center for Population Economics

Summary:

This data collection constitutes a portion of the
historical data collected by the project "Early Indicators of Later
Work Levels, Disease, and Death." With the goal of constructing
datasets suitable for longitudinal analyses of factors affecting the
aging process, the project is collecting military, medical, and
socioeconomical data on a sample of white males mustered into the
Union Army during the Civil War. The project seeks to examine the
influence of environmental and host factors prior to recruitment on
the health performance and survival of recruits during military
service, to identify and show relationships between socioeconomic and
biomedical conditions (including nutritional status) of veterans at
early ages and mortality rates from diseases at middle and late ages,
and to study the effects of health and pensions on labor force
participation rates of veterans at ages 65 and over. This installment
of the collection, Version M-5, supersedes any previous version of
these data. Collected in this version are data from military service,
pension, and medical records of veterans who were originally mustered
into the Union Army in California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of
Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland,
Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New
Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West
Virginia, and Wisconsin regiments. Also included are data from a
20-company pilot sample and information on recruits whose pension
records were stored at the Veterans Administration (VA) Archives in
Washington, DC, but had not been collected previously. Data include
date and place of birth, place of residence, marital status, number of
children, occupation, wealth and income, muster place and date, length
of service, battles fought, medical experiences (e.g., illness,
wounds, and hospital stays), health status, pension information, and
date, place, and cause of death. Additional variables provide the
place and date of birth of the recruits' wives, children, and
parents. The data are organized into three sections according to state
of enlistment. Section 1 (Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4) contains data from New
England, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, Iowa, New Jersey, Indiana,
Wisconsin, California, New Mexico, and the 20-company pilot
sample. Section 2 (Parts 5, 6, 7, and 8) contains data from New York,
Michigan, Washington, DC, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and West
Virginia, along with pensions data from the VA Archives. Section 3
(Parts 9, 10, 11, and 12) contains data from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and
Illinois. The variables in Part 13, Linkage Data, indicate which major
document sources were located for each recruit. Also, provided is
information regarding death dates (Part 14) for individuals whose
death records came from the pension payout cards. Approximate date of
death was determined by examining the last record of payment to the
pensioner.

This data collection constitutes a portion of the
historical data collected by the project "Early Indicators of Later
Work Levels, Disease, and Death." With the goal of constructing
datasets suitable for longitudinal analyses of factors affecting the
aging process, the project is collecting military, medical, and
socioeconomical data on a sample of white males mustered into the
Union Army during the Civil War. The project seeks to examine the
influence of environmental and host factors prior to recruitment on
the health performance and survival of recruits during military
service, to identify and show relationships between socioeconomic and
biomedical conditions (including nutritional status) of veterans at
early ages and mortality rates from diseases at middle and late ages,
and to study the effects of health and pensions on labor force
participation rates of veterans at ages 65 and over. This installment
of the collection, Version M-5, supersedes any previous version of
these data. Collected in this version are data from military service,
pension, and medical records of veterans who were originally mustered
into the Union Army in California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of
Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland,
Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New
Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West
Virginia, and Wisconsin regiments. Also included are data from a
20-company pilot sample and information on recruits whose pension
records were stored at the Veterans Administration (VA) Archives in
Washington, DC, but had not been collected previously. Data include
date and place of birth, place of residence, marital status, number of
children, occupation, wealth and income, muster place and date, length
of service, battles fought, medical experiences (e.g., illness,
wounds, and hospital stays), health status, pension information, and
date, place, and cause of death. Additional variables provide the
place and date of birth of the recruits' wives, children, and
parents. The data are organized into three sections according to state
of enlistment. Section 1 (Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4) contains data from New
England, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, Iowa, New Jersey, Indiana,
Wisconsin, California, New Mexico, and the 20-company pilot
sample. Section 2 (Parts 5, 6, 7, and 8) contains data from New York,
Michigan, Washington, DC, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and West
Virginia, along with pensions data from the VA Archives. Section 3
(Parts 9, 10, 11, and 12) contains data from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and
Illinois. The variables in Part 13, Linkage Data, indicate which major
document sources were located for each recruit. Also, provided is
information regarding death dates (Part 14) for individuals whose
death records came from the pension payout cards. Approximate date of
death was determined by examining the last record of payment to the
pensioner.

Universe:
Union Army recruits in white volunteer infantry regiments.
Commissioned officers, Black recruits, and other branches of the
military were excluded from the universe.

Data Type(s):
administrative records data

Data Collection Notes:

(1) The data in Part 1 (containing the variables
RECIDNUM through OTHRQC17) and Part 2 (containing the variables
RECIDNUM and OTHRRN17 to AFCOND20) can be merged together on RECIDNUM
to create the full file for the Section 1: Combined Data. Please note
that this is a very large file when combined. The data in Part 5
(containing the variables RECIDNUM through OTHRQC17) and Part 6
(containing the variables RECIDNUM and OTHRRN17 to AFCOND20) can be
merged together on RECIDNUM to create the full file for the Section 2:
Combined Data. Please note that this is a very large file when
combined. The data in Part 9 (containing the variables RECIDNUM
through OTHRQC17) and Part 10 (containing the variables RECIDNUM and
OTHRRN17 to AFCOND20) can be merged together on RECIDNUM to create the
full file for the Section 3: Combined Data. Please note that this is
a very large file when combined. (2) Users interested in the previous
versions of this collection (Version M-2 or Version M-4) should
contact ICPSR User Support. (3) The codebook is provided by the
principal investigator as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file.

Methodology

Sample:
A one-stage cluster sample of Union Army companies was
randomly selected from the Regimental Books housed at the National
Archives in Washington, DC.

Data Source:

Carded medical records, military service records, and
Union Army pension records stored at the National Archives and
Veterans Administration Archives in Washington, DC.

Restrictions: To preserve respondent privacy, certain identifying
variables are restricted from general dissemination. Aggregations of
this information for statistical purposes that preserve the anonymity
of individual respondents can be obtained from ICPSR in accordance
with existing servicing policies.

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release: 1997-06-24

Version History:

2006-06-05 The Stata files stored the 10 digit,
numeric ID variable as 10f (floating), which altered the number and
made it unuseable. It was necessary to change the RECIDNUM (unique
record ID number required to merge files) to a string variable to
retain the uniqueness and useability.

2006-04-05 The data have been reformatted to
correct a problem with the field width for RECIDNUM. All data files
have been formatted to contain 1 record per case.

2005-11-04 On 2005-03-14 new files were added to
one or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as
well as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS
portable, and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised
2005-11-04 to reflect these additions.

2000-11-02 A new version of this study containing
data from New Mexico, California, Wisconsin, and Indiana, along with a
20-company pilot sample, has been supplied by the principal
investigators. This version, Version M-5, completely supersedes the
older versions of this collection. Also, parts for this collection
have been renumbered.

1999-11-19 Logical record length data have been
extracted from the SAS transport files for all parts, and SAS and SPSS
data definition statements are now available for this collection. Also,
the Combined Data has been broken into three parts (Parts 1-3) due to
size limitations, causing the data files to be renumbered. Users
should note that the variable counts given here reflect the actual
counts, which differ from those given in the documentation. In
addition, a file containing supplemental information has been added to
the collection.

1999-01-26 A new version of this study, containing
data for 16 additional states and the District of Columbia, has been
supplied by the principal investigators. This version, Version M-4,
completely supersedes the older version.